The past five years have seen a remarkable renaissance of classical myth in the revisionist writings of anglophone women authors. Whether it is Natalie Haynes’ The Children of Jocasta (2017), Madeleine Miller’s Circe (2018), Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls (2018), or Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne (2021) – the list is by no means complete – what their revisionist mythmaking shares is a concern with women’s experiences, stories, and perspectives. Traditionally, classical myth and their later re-narrations by male authors have either cast women’s figures in formulaic female subject positions or barely deemed their stories worth mentioning. As the list shows, we are still haunted by these gaps, even though we might rightfully ask what Ismene and Jocasta, Circe, Briseis, Ariadne, and other (marginalized) women figures in classical myth, still have to tell us. What contemporary issues and concerns do their stories respond to that continue to make them relevant? And in what ways do these issues and concerns throw light on the figures whose stories we think we already know from ancient myth, or that we do not know at all? In what ways do these revisionist storytellings converse with, even reject, male-authored re-writings of classical myth? What outlooks do the stories of and about these ancient women offer? In this course, we will try to find answers to these questions, while also studying some critical perspectives in the vast field of myth theory. Please purchase and read the following novels (they are listed in the order in which we will discuss them):
Pat Barker. The Silence of the Girls. 2018. (Preferably the Penguin edition.)
Margaret Atwood. The Penelopiad. 2005.
Madeleine Miller. Circe. 2018.

A syllabus and further information about the course, active participation, as well as some reading materials will be made available on Stud.IP at the beginning of the winter semester.